work with the Presbyterian Church of Canada, so that the spiritual needs of the incoming settlers may be more adequately met without overlapping or waste of effort. A marked advance in moral reform was shown in the appointment of a Temperance Secretary who shall travel throughout the country, arouse temperance sentiment, and seek to crystallize it into concrete action. An animated debate took place on the admission of women to the General Conference. Although one lady had been elected to a previous General Conference, and others to Annual Conferences, it was alleged that there was no general wish on the part of the women of Methodism for this privilege; that when a wish for admission to the higher courts of the Church was shown, it would be promptly granted. The vote on the subject was a tie, and as it was ruled to be a Constitutional question which would require a three-fourths majority of the General Conference, the movement, for the present, failed. in Canada 1 The Hon. S. H. Blake, of Toronto, gave ings were also conveyed by the Presby- A Western While the relations of coal miners and their remain so unsatisfactory This Synod, the supreme Anglican Synod ecclesiastical parliament of the Anglican Church in Canada, which convenes once in six years, met in Montreal on Wednesday of last week. The scene as the clergy walked from the Synod Hall to Christ Church Cathedral was, writes a correspondent, singularly picturesque. The white surplices, colored hoods, and the imposing Sociological Work employers in the East array of the bishops, headed by the venerable Archbishop Bond, in his eightyseventh year, a man revered and beloved in all the churches, made a pageant of almost mediæval splendor. In the unavoidable absence, through illness, of Archbishop Machray, of Rupert's Land, Primate of all Canada, Archbishop Bond read his comprehensive address. The Synod meets in two sections, the upper house, or convocation of bishops, and the lower house, the assembly of clerical and lay members. The most important business transacted was the organization of a new missionary society which shall represent the entire church in Canada, to take the place of the mission board controlled by the provincial Synod. This will give greater vigor of operation, especially in the new territories of the Northwest. as at present, it is pleasant to note the good feeling that exists between employers and employed in a great mining industry in the West. The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company employs some fifteen. thousand men in its business of mining coal and iron ore and making them into coke, iron, and steel. These men are employed in nearly forty different camps, rolling-mills, and steel-works, in Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico, in places as far as sixteen hundred miles apart. A Sociological Department has been formed by the Company, which has for its purpose the organization of night schools, kindergartens, circulating and permanent libraries, cooking schools, clubs, and musical societies among the seventy-five thousand people who com prise the workers and their families. A hospital is maintained by the Company at Pueblo, Colorado-the location of its principal mills-for the treatment of injured employees, and it is described as being thoroughly equipped with the most modern surgical appliances, and in charge of skillful surgeons and nurses, Dr. R. W. Corwin at their head. In addition, it is proposed to establish a home for employees who become permanently disabled in the service of the Company. "The incurables are not welcome at any hospital," says an officer of the Company, and in view of this fact, and of the special liability of men employed in heavy muscular work to become disabled in the discharge of their duties, it is hoped to make some provision for such cases. A weekly magazine, "Camp and Plant," is published, having for its object the dissemination of news about the various camps, the promotion of the sociological work, and, in general, the bringing together and unifying of the diverse groups of workers of this great mining enterprise. An indication of the humanizing spirit that characterizes the Company's dealings with its employees is found in this sentence from "Camp and Plant:" "A group of fifty houses in the lower part of the town [Redstone] will shortly be finished and ready for occupation. These cottages will be occupied by the Italians, who are coke or stone workers. They believe that their health will thus be greatly improved. ... We do not have monotonous rows of box-car houses with battened walls, painted a dreary mineral red, but tasteful little cottages in different styles, prettily ornamented, comfortably arranged internally, and painted in every variety of restful color." The sense of responsibility thus shown by this Western mining company in seeking to ameliorate the condition of its employees and to beautify their surroundings furnishes an example which Eastern operators might well emulate. While some stockholders might criticise the using of company funds for humanizing purposes, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Company, Mr. John C. Osgood, declares that he is simply carrying out good business principles in promoting the welfare of his employees. "We do not ask credit as philanthro pists," he says; "we are aiming to carry out common-sense business ideas in the conduct of the business." Historical Writing in America One of the signs of the growth of what may be called national consciousness in this country since the Civil War has been the steadily deepening interest in American history, and the steadily widening field of research. Our older historians dealt largely with the history of other races. The material was more accessible, and at first sight far more picturesque. It appealed to the historical imagination. That brilliant group has not been succeeded by historians of the same literary quality, the same charm of style; but it has been succeeded by a large and vigorous group of students and writers whose methods are more scientific. Most of them have concentrated their attention upon the background of our own national life. Professor H. Morse Stephens's comment on "Some Living American Historians" in a recent number of "The World's Work" was a surprise to many readers who did not realize how considerable a group of trained men are now dealing with historical subjects in this country, and how many important additions have been made to American historical literature during the last two decades. If there is less grace of style, less emphasis on literary form, there are a more exacting spirit, a more rigorous method, a greater degree of judicial impartiality. Professor Herbert Adams's work at the Johns Hopkins University has been sometimes criticised because it focused the attention of students on such small areas of investigation; but it has left its permanent mark on historical study in this country because it formed the habit, on the part of many students, of investigating the sources of history at first hand, and of overlooking nothing which contributed in any way to knowledge of the period under observation. Dr. Adams was largely instrumental in the organization of the American Historical Association, which has done much, directly and indirectly, to develop interest in historical monuments and material of every sort, and to stimulate the organization of local and State historical societies in all parts of the country. Professor Fiske, who has done more than any other historian to persuade Americans to read their own history, and Mr. Justin Winsor, the late librarian of Harvard, whose investigations contributed materially to the early history of discovery and exploration on this continent, are sorely missed from the group, among whom they held, in point of time, a primacy. In this group foremost places must be given to Mr. James Ford Rhodes and Mr. Henry Adams. Mr. Rhodes's "History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850" was one of the most difficult pieces of historical work which has been undertaken in this country, and promises to be one of the most successful. It covers a recent period and one that was filled with great passions; but so admirably has Mr. Rhodes combined impartiality with frankness, and so thoroughly judicial is his temper, that he has succeeded in dealing with hotly disputed subjects in a way to allay prejudices, if not always to carry conviction. As he has gone on with his history his style has steadily gained in clearness and interest. Harvard, Yale, and Berlin have recently honored him, and he has come to hold a strong position among our native historians. Mr. Henry Adams's "History of the United States During the Administration of Jefferson and Madison" is a brilliant . piece of work, and, to quote from such eminent authorities as Professors Channing and Hart, "a model of clear, enlightened, and fearless historical composition." Mr. Adams's history is especially strong in its elucidation of the foreign policy of the country during a very difficult period, and in its interpretation of the internal politics of France and England during the Napoleonic period. Indeed, his history is important not only from the standpoint of what has gone on in this country, but also what has taken place in Europe; and Professor Morse is of opinion that the chapter on " American Ideals " is the best explanation which has yet been offered of the achievements of the American people on this continent. Professor McMaster's "History of the People of the United States" is popular in the good sense of the word, and has the fresh interest which comes from a first-hand knowledge of the early newspaper and pamphlet literature, with which Mr. McMaster is entirely familiar. Two American historians who are not so widely known as they ought to be at home, but who have received the highest honors abroad, are Captain Alfred T. Mahan and Mr. Lea. Captain Mahan is undoubtedly better known in Europe than any other living American historian. He is not only known by students of history, but his works are text-books in the hands of experts in Europe and Asia. His "Influence of Sea Power upon History” probably deserves the much-misused characterization "an epoch-making book." Professor Morse recalls the fact that every captain of a Japanese ship of war received a copy of this book as part of his equipment. In England it has been received, not only with great admiration, but with a feeling of profound gratitude, as furnishing the best possible confirmation of the wisdom of English policy on the high seas; and it is one of the curiosities of history that the works of an American writer have been used with great effect in persuading Parliament to increase vastly the strength of the English navy. Mr. Henry Charles Lea, of Philadelphia, like Mr. Rhodes, was for a number of years a man of affairs, and, like Mr. Rhodes, becoming a student of history, he has achieved the kind of success which was formerly accorded, in general opinion at least, only to those specially and carefully trained for the work. Among American historians no one is more highly regarded by English and European scholars than Mr. Lea; and Mr. Morse notes the fact that he is the only American historian who, by special permission of the University of Oxford, has been allowed to borrow manuscript from the Bodleian Library--a privilege which has been accorded only to Mommsen and one or two others. Mr. Lea's "History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages," his "History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences in the Latin Church," and his "Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church" involved, as the titles suggest, research into distant and difficult material; they cover many points bitterly controverted, and they reveal masterly grasp of material, thoroughly judicial temper, and high qualities of historical style. The criticism that American history has been written exclusively from the New England point of view no longer holds good. Mr. Edward McCrady's "History of South Carolina" presents the part played by that commonwealth in the making of America as clearly and exhaustively as the part played by Massachusetts was presented by Bancroft, and the work is full of illumination as to the character of the Revolutionary struggle throughout the entire South. Mr. Bruce's "Economic History of Virginia" describes the social as well as the economic character of society in the South from the earliest days of our history; while Mr. Garner's "Reconstruction in Mississippi " presents the upheaval which took place after the overthrow of slavery, with the impartial hand of a historian, but with the intimate knowledge and sympathy only possible to one of Southern birth. Of a more general character is Mr. William Garrott Brown's preliminary essay upon "The Lower South in American History," an essay which is to be followed, we understand, by a more exhaustive work upon the same subject. Less distinctively Southern in its point of view, but still the work of a Southerner, is Mr. Alexander Brown's "English Politics in Early Virginia History," which has thrown an entirely new light upon the relation which the planting of the colony in Virginia bore to the conflict between the adherents to the old order and the lovers of popular liberty in England. Captain John Smith, whom John Fiske had almost restored to the position of a hero which he held in our childhood, is shown by Mr. Brown to have no testimony in favor of his heroism except that which he himself furnished. Dr. Woodrow Wilson's important historical studies are written from the national point of view and are of great interest. Dr. Edward Eggleston's studies in colonial history are novel in method and eminently readable. The late Professor Moses Coit Tyler's "Literary His tory of the Revolution" is an important contribution to historical literature. Professor Turner, of the University of Wisconsin, may be taken as a type of the He has youngest group of historians. taken as his special field the development of the Central West; and his paper on "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," published by the Historical Association nine years ago, was an admirable statement from an original point of view of the causes and the character of the expansion of American energy and life in the great central valley of the continent. There are other promising students and writers whose names must be included in any complete list of workers in this field. This résumé is not inclusive, but aims to suggest the notable expansion of historical interest and work in this country. "The Tombs Angel" On another page will be found an interesting personal sketch of Rebecca Salome Foster, whose tragic death last winter has already been recorded and commented upon in The Outlook. Mrs. Foster was widely known throughout New York City, as well as in many other parts of the country, as the "Tombs Angel," a name of affection which she had received on account of her ministries among the criminal and suffering classes for which the Tombs prison and the Tombs police courts are places of gathering. The auther of the article-to which we refer our readers for an exceedingly interesting narrative concerning Mrs. Foster's life-has described Mrs. Foster's character and work without attempting to interpret it. In fact, he frankly says, "It has been impossible for me to get from any one a statement as to her motives. No one seems to know just why she became a servant of the court and of the condemned." We think the explanation is a very simple one. Mrs. Foster was simply following the basic principle of right living laid down by the greatest teacher of spiritual truth that the world has ever known: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." A follower of Jesus, Paul the Apostle, defined, in a passage famous in literature, what that love for one's neighbor should be, and by what signs it may be recognized. Read the estimates of the life and character of the "Tombs Angel" collated from various sources by Mr. Arthur Henry, and then read the depends upon how far we permit the spirit which displayed itself in her to develop in us. following passage from one of the great A Biblical Difficulty Solved letters of one of the greatest letter-writers known to literature, and see how perfectly they fit: "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away." The author of the tribute to Mrs. Foster of which we are speaking concludes by saying: "These details do not lend themselves to the portrait of a conventional missionary, and it is to be hoped that the artist who designed the monument to be placed in her memory will avoid ancient and accepted symbols, for here is some thing striking, significant, and new." In this statement he is partly right and partly wrong. The beauty of spirit and action found in Mrs. Foster's life is not new, it is nearly two thousand years old; but it is striking and significant. Men or women rarely have the gifts of tact, sound judgment, discernment to sift the wheat from the chaff, which enabled Mrs. Foster to do her remarkable work; but it is one of the glories of the human race that the impulse and motive and power of spirit which actuated and sustained Mrs. Foster may be the possession of every individual in his or her daily life. How nearly we may each achieve results which can stand comparison with those attained by her I was sorry to see in The Outlook of June 14, in answer to a request for an explanation of the offering of Isaac, that it was looked upon as "legendary." If so, what do you make of St. Paul's reference to it, Hebrews xi., 17-19? Is it not this fact as a test of Abraham's faith that gives a meaning to the whole history of the Jewish nation? To Abraham the suggestion would not be unnatural; he was accustomed to the idea of offer ing the best, by the custom among the day. I make these suggestions hoping that, heathen nations in the land of Canaan in his for the sake of others, some one more capable than myself will answer your inquirer. B. M. M. This request exhibits the serious difficulty of many devout minds with the results of historical research and criticism, apparently upsetting their faith in the credibility of the Bible. It is only the latest phase of the difficulty that has for centuries attended the progress of scientific knowledge, and has always been solved without injustice to fact or injury to faith. That the narrative of the trial of Abraham by a divine command to sacrifice his son is legendary must be admitted, if one accepts the result of learned researches accepted by such men as Professor Paton, of Hartford Theological Seminary, and Professor Curtis, of the Yale Divinity School. These evangelical scholars agree. with many others in holding the names of the Hebrew patriarchs before Moses to be tribal names, not personal. Just as the ancient Greeks or Hellenes named a mythical ancestor Hellen as the father of their race, so did the Hebrews, both collectively as the stock of Abraham, and separately as the twelve tribes into which it divided. While there still is much dissent from this, it is so evidently the point to which study converges that it is at least time to ask what readjustments of religious thought may have to be made to fit the probable conclusion. A fact of importance in the problem is the persistence of human sacrifice among the Hebrews for more than a thousand years after the date assigned to Abraham. Jephthah immolated his daughter. Infants |